No replies to this topic

[HenryYule]

Just discovered a new book called "Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia" by Thant Myint-U (My link).

It's partly a travelogue (through Burma, southwest China and northeast India), but about a third of the book is on the history of Yunnan - including on the old Yelang and Dian kingdoms, on Nan Zhao, etc., with a lot of interesting speculation and theories about links between Burma and pre-Han Yunnan. A fresh look at China's "southwestern frontier" - with descriptions as well of present-day Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and then over into Burma to Mandalay and Rangoon.

One interesting theory of the author's is on the link between Nanzhao and the first "Burman" kingdoms in Burma in the late first millenium, based on the author's own linguistic and historical research.